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What does prophetic ministry look like? This is a really good question, and to be honest, it’s is quite challenging to answer. In my opinion, prophetic ministry is actually the most complex form of ministry within APEST. That being said, I want to suggest four features of prophetic ministry, and then show how those features can come together to form various expressions of prophetic ministry.
We are not called to introduce people to a truth claim; we are trying to introduce them to Jesus himself. He is the good news. The good news is incarnated in Jesus. It is personified in Jesus. The gospel is best communicated in flesh, not just in words. So Evangelism always begins with our life, our actions, our character, our posture. Can we state propositions about Jesus? Yes of course, but we must physically incarnate Jesus before we verbally instruct people about Jesus.
Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers are Jesus’ gift to the church. This week in the U.S. we’re celebrating Thanksgiving. In that spirit, we want to encourage you to show your thankfulness by sharing 5Q gifts with the leaders in your life. That’s why we’re offering everything in the 5Q store at 25% discount through Thanksgiving weekend. We hope you’ll …
In the last post we looked at the Teacher capacity and we are going to continue to work through each of the five gifts, sharing insights from a recent sermon series from Jon Ritner, Pastor of Ecclesia Hollywood, as well as excerpts from the new book, 5Q: Reactivating The Original Intelligence And Capacity Of The Body Of Christ. In this post we are going to look at the Shepherd.
We’re going to walk through each of the gifts over the coming weeks, and today, we’re going to start with the most familiar: Teacher. Our goal is take the most familiar gift, the teacher, and help you think differently about it, see the calling from another point of view, helping you to experience it as a multi-faceted identity.
Over the course of a life in ministry, this is a very common question for most of us. The more we dive into 5Q, really get into the guts of it, the more that believe that APEST is the way to discover the answer. More than just giving an answer though, 5Q launches us on a journey where we discover God’s will as we exercise our calling. Beyond our personal calling, 5Q gives us a way to experience our call as a part of the function of the whole Body of Christ.
Last week, we looked at the state of Apostles, Prophets and Evangelists in the Church. Bringing the APE back from near extinction is a post that takes an honest look at the APE and the lack of place they find in current state of the Body of Christ.
This week we want to Release The APE Back Into The Wild, back into the Church, their natural habitat.
At his point in our history, most churches exist to perpetuate of systems of shepherding and teaching; and that isn’t a bad thing in itself, but the Shepherd/Teachers are internal functions, only some of the necessary systems of a healthy body. We need the outward, apostolic gifts.
Today we are going to focus on a Bible passage that I bet you skip when you read it. If you don’t skim over it now, I bet you used to. I’m just being honest here, until I began studying alongside Alan’s writing, I didn’t know it was there. It was like reading English, English, English, then (ugh) Klingon, Klingon, Klingon, then (ahhhh) English again.
Starting a church in a Starbucks in Europe, or in the open air at Bixby Park in downtown Long Beach, or doing open mic nights in a gay coffee house make for some awesome stories to tell. And…there are other moments that almost became stories, but thankfully never did. The reason for this has to do with the counterbalance that …
